DAO: Child Cast
by FeZeTh13
Summary: While exploring a ruin to demand answers from a cult of blood mages, a mysterious blood spell hits the majority of the party, casting them back to children. Morrigan and Sten, unaffected by the spell, have to take care of these rambuncious children until they find the way to counter the magic and bring the Wardens back.


**_This was kind of a prompt I found on the Kmeme, but I can't find it. It was that all the companions and Warden turn into children... except Sten and Morrigan who now have to take care of them so they don't die. This has multiple Wardens and all origins but not all them are Wardens. Amell, Mahariel, and Tabris are the only actual Wardens. The others were just found and brought along for the ride. It is kind of my side canon story._**

**_Anyway, I hope you enjoy. I have been working on this for a while and finally decided to just put it up for fun._**

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Ra'ala Mahariel was not feeling too well being in these ruins. Although she loves history, these ruins bring up too many memories and she feels trapped within the stone walls. She wishes she had Zabam with her, so she could place her hand atop his head and feel his comfort. With a sigh she looks back to see him trotting next to Sten right where she told him to be, taking up the rear.

"These stone walls do not agree with you my dear?" a lilting voice says from just beside her and Ra'ala smiles a little, looking to Zevran. His playful smirk brings her some semblance of normalcy since he seems to always have one brightening his face. She rolls her eyes at him.

"You know they do not," she answers with a playful jab to his ribs. His armor blocks it and he does not much feel it but she is grateful when he starts talking of random things to take her mind off this place. By the Creators she loves this man, but he would not accept such words, not now. So she keeps them to herself until an appropriate time.

Lendon Amell could not take his eyes off the runes in the ruins. He wanted to study them all, take notes and find out what they meant. He almost kept missing the group as they walked on, as he tries to take in the knowledge he could understand. Leliana kept a firm grip on his robe sleeve and tugged to get his attention and feet moving again. They came upon an empty wall, something he had no interest in, so he turned his attention to the group.

"You could come back here you know. When the blight is done and you have nothing but time on your hands," Leliana giggles at him. He gives her a kind smile and a small nod. This ruin was huge, they would definitely have to come back here again. A book on the ground grabs his attention and he immediately picks it up to store in his pack.

Terrus Tabris looks back at Lendon and smirks. Such a thirst for knowledge that one. He leans over to whisper to Morrigan, "If you happen to know of any of the knowledge of this place or the ancient magic it holds, please tell Lendon. It will make his day."

"Am I to be his teacher then? He hardly comes with any questions now, why would he be interested?" Morrigan asks scoffing slightly and Terrus rolls his eyes.

"You know he hardly talks, much less initiates conversation. He listens to everything though. I am surprised you haven't noticed his thirst for knowledge, since I do always bring him with me when I ask you questions. Especially about magic or your mother," Terrus answers, one eyebrow cocked.

"I thought it was just your way to annoy me. Besides it seems only you and Mahariel have the kind of time to notice these things about other people," she retorts.

"It's like I can read minds!" Terrus answers with enthusiasm and chuckles when he hears Morrigan 'tsk' at him with a small smile on her face. It took a while, but he had been able to get her to warm up to him. Now all he had to do was make her believe love was a strong emotion and did not make one weak. He could see her hardened exterior waning when it was just the two of them. Any time was worth the wait.

Elissa Cousland did have her mabari, Scamp, up with her as she walked beside Alistair and behind the two elven rogues. She was about to bring up that they should all be a little more quiet if they were to find these mages by surprise when another loud voice spoke up.

"Hey pike twirler," Oghren starts and takes another swig of whatever he was drinking. Elissa had only accidently drank it once and she had been sick for days. She didn't know if she respected his ability to drink it or was completely disgusted by it.

"What do you want Oghren?" Alistair asks with an exasperated sigh. Neither of them knew what to expect when he had been drinking his swill. Elissa gives Alistair a look of almost resignation because their friend had been commenting about them sharing a tent for a week now. Each comment seemingly getting worse, but Elissa just played with it. It did keep him from saying more on those days when he couldn't phase her but still some of his comments made her blush and Alistair always turned red.

Alistair sent her a pleading look and she nodded her head. He was not in the mood today. Distract the dwarf from his current thoughts. "So Oghren, how do you enjoy being back under the stone? Feel more at home?" She asks sweetly just as he opens his mouth to speak.

"This stone isn't stable enough to be like home, sweet cheeks. Humans made this, not dwarves," he answers and she moves the conversation to keep him off track.

"How have you and Felsi been lately? I know she replied to your love letter," Elissa smirked down at his face as he got this pleased look in his eye. It turned to confusion.

"How do you know I got a reply?"

"I read it of course. I helped you write yours, the least I get back is to read what she said," Elissa just smiles more as he shrugs his shoulders. She keeps up the conversation with him until he belches and she must move away because of the smell. He just laughs.

The ruin had been huge, but they were finally coming upon then end where the blood mages were holding dark rituals. Surana, Shale, Wynne, Brosca, and Aeducan were watching over their thralls back in the city, three days away while also taking care of things needing to be done.

The party snuck down the final corridor and most of their mouths hang open when they see an opening to the outside on the other side of the room, right behind the blood mages. Mahariel managed to bite her tongue and Sten looked down at everyone in disapproval. They were not given accurate information on the quickest way to find these mages, and would make sure to remedy that when they got back to the city.

The two dual wielding rogues enter into stealth mode and make their way into the giant room. The warriors prepare to rush while the mages and archer stand back to hit them with everything they've got.

Elissa Cousland is the first to enter the room and get the blood mages' attention.

"We can do this the hard way or you can come-" she dodges a spell aimed at her and glares at them –"fine. Hard way it is."

Zevran and Ra'ala slit two across the throat while the warriors charge in.

One blood mage in the center, their leader, starts a deep incantation taking the blood of the two fallen ones and something dark seems to be felt stirring in the room. A book falls to the ground as the altar starts shaking and Lendon cries out after putting walking bomb on the center mage. He runs toward the book, the letters in it turning to blood and Leliana runs after him, arrows singing through the air trying to protect him.

Terrus and Ra'ala fight together against one particular strong mage. Zevran, Elissa, and Sten engage the demons and shades coming from the ground. Alistair and Oghren fight back to back against separate mages. Morrigan is still trying to reach past the barrier of the leader with her magic, but he is powerful. The dogs prey upon a dying woman, mercifully ending her life.

Sten suddenly rushes toward Morrigan, Zabam at his heals, a pride demon swiping toward her and he cuts it down. Neither is prepared for the sudden explosion of white from the other side of the room.

Everything goes deaf and they are blinded for a moment. Then they feel the rumbling of the room.

They rush toward the exit, knowing well that the others are smart enough to run as well. As long as they aren't injured.

The two break out of the opening in the ruin and watch it as it collapses. Morrigan coughs from the smoke and Sten waves his hand trying to clear it. It is hard to see, but seeing movement from the ruin lets them know the others made it.

They hear a high pitched scream, followed by a few more. Morrigan goes forward to see what the commotion is and to make sure they did not accidently encroach upon Dalish territory and scare their children.

What she saw when she got to the source made her stop in her tracks.

"Pasharaa, what is this magic?" Sten says from beside her.

There are naked children running around. One little blonde haired boy is screaming about his pants missing. They all look up at the two adults and some scream while others just stare.

Morrigan can easily recognize their clothes and armor strewn about but she finds that she does not have an answer for Sten's question. "It seems our companions have turned into little children."

"Indeed." Was all Sten could say.

The little blonde haired boy from before runs up and tugs on Morrigan's skirt.

"I can't find my pants ma'am," he says and she recognizes that voice.

"Alistair, stay here while I find you some pants?" he nods and she then addresses all the children, trying to count to see if anyone is missing. None are, though they all seem concerned about their nakedness. Except one tanned elf who just stands there. "Would you all please calm down while we find you some clothes?"

"Who are you?" The bright red haired elf lad yells at them, hiding behind a rock.

"All of you sit down," Sten commands. All the children's eyes get big and those who were standing all land on their butts at his command.

Morrigan runs to their packs, getting out their casual shirts and handing them to their respective owners. The little girls are huddled on the ground and quickly put the shirts on, which now look like dresses.

"Did you find pants?" Alistair asks when Morrigan hands him his shirt.

"We will find pants later, for now these should be sufficient," he doesn't argue and puts the shirt on.

"This is really big and smells like pee," the tiniest one of them all grumbles out. "I want another one!" he says louder.

"Maybe if your predecessor didn't drink himself drunk so much it wouldn't be like that," Morrigan answers, but seeing as how she didn't want a stinky kid on her hands she gave him another one of Zevran's shirts. He attaches himself to her leg and squeezes his eyes shut.

"I don't want to fall into the sky. No no no…"

Sten kept watch over them all, making them all stay in their spots with his glare. He then notices that Zabam is still his normal size and looking at the little blonde elven lass. She seems completely enraptured by him. The little black haired human girl has a puppy in her lap. It seems one dog escaped the blast, but not both.

"Who are you?" the little red head boy asks again, looking up at them in defiance.

"You do not remember?" Morrigan asks.

"I've never seen you before," the black haired human, Elissa, says. Sten sighs.

"You may call me Morrigan," she says and then all the kids look at Sten.

"I am Sten of the Baraassaad."

"I'm Elissa Cousland. You do know that my father is a Teryn and kidnapping is a crime?"

"We did not kidnap you," Morrigan starts but is interrupted.

"This is not even Orlais, how did I come here?" the little red haired girl, Leliana, asks in a beginning panic.

"It does not smell like my Antiva either," Zevran replies and starts smelling the air.

"You are not in Orlais or Antiva. You are in Fereldan," Sten sternly states. The two foreigners gape at him and the Leliana starts crying.

"You are not good with children are you?" Morrigan asks sharply.

"You do not know Qunari customs, do not expect more from me then you have already seen," is Sten's reply.

"Everybody stop crying and squirming," Morrigan tries to reason with them, but when one starts it seems they all want to cry.

"I want my clan."

"I want my mommy and daddy."

"Me too."

"I want my Lady."

"I want Antiva!"

"Are we even near Redcliffe?"

"I don't want to fall into the sky!"

The last little human boy remained silent and eyes wide as he desperately looks around. Lendon then.

"All of you, all of you be quiet," Morrigan tries but they don't stop. She sighs heavily and then one of the boys screams.

"IS THAT A DEAD BODY?!" Alistair yells and points, getting the children's attentions as well as Morrigan and Sten.

Everything seems to freeze before it erupts into chaos again. The children get up, screaming and run in all directions. Except Oghren who holds onto Morrigan's leg for dear life. He's more afraid of the sky than the body.

Sten moves quickly, even in his plate armor and plucks kids up from the ground. Lendon first, then Alistair, Cousland who is carrying her puppy, Mahariel, Tabris, Leliana, and finally Zevran. A whole mess of little bodies in his arms all wriggling to get free.

"That man is a bad and dishonest man," Sten starts as he makes his way over to Morrigan again.

A muffled sound comes from the middle of the group.

"Pardon?"

"She asked, so you killed him? I don't think she or the red head elf can breathe," Zevran says as he avoids the pointy gloves.

"We did kill him because he meant to harm you," Morrigan says as she meets them halfway. "We protected you. Now, we would like to return you to where you belong safely, so don't run away. Or this will happen again. Are we clear?"

The heads she can see nod and she hears some muffled agreements. Sten plops them all onto the ground, Ra'ala and Terrus gasping for breath.

"Now, since you know we mean you no harm how about introducing yourselves?" Morrigan keeps going with the story hoping to keep the kids trust. They can't run out and die or the blight takes over the world. Though there was still the matter of this dwarf attached to her foot.

Elissa, seeing the scared little boy runs over with her puppy still in her hands. She gets down at his level and asks, "What's your name?"

He sniffles and still doesn't look at her, "Oghren."

"My name is Elissa Cousland. What's wrong?"

"I don't want to fall into the sky…" he mumbles out.

"You know, I've lived up here my whole life and I've never fallen into the sky," she says and her puppy barks. "Neither has Scamp. Do you want to meet Scamp?"

Oghren shakily looks at her and Scamp, his eyes going wide at the sight of the puppy. He smiles a little and reaches out to pet it. Scamp eagerly pushes her head into his head and lolls her tongue out happily. Oghren laughs a little.

"Scamp likes you. She likes to run around and play too. Do you want to play with her?" Elissa asks, taking a few steps back. Oghren follows after her, eyes darting to the sky but also watching Scamp. "There see? Safe and sound."

Indeed he had not fallen into the sky. His parents lied. So, now he starts rolling on the ground with Scamp.

Zevran hears a little voice behind him, "Hey that looks like swords from my Clan." He turns around to see who it is and the little blonde elf girl is running toward the discarded clothes and… weapons? The little blonde human boy and red headed elf follow after her to see what cool things have been left behind. He decides to join them.

"These are from my clan! I recognize Master Ilen's crafting!" she says and the boys huddle around her. She blushes and looks at them all.

"You are Dalish?" Zevran asks.

"Yeah. Ra'ala Mahariel from the Sabre clan," she answers and the boys look at her in wonderment.

"Most people say the Dalish are myths, that they don't exist. At least in Denerim they say that. My name is Terrus Tabris," he says and reaches out to shake her hand. She just looks at it not knowing what to do.

"You shake it," the human boy prompts.

"Why?" she wrinkles her nose in confusion.

"I don't know. People do it when they meet each other. See?" the boy puts his hand out to Zevran, "My name is Alistair."

"Zevran Aranai," he takes the boys hand and shakes it. Ra'ala quickly grabs Terrus' hand and mimics what they do. Then she grabs the other boys' hands and shakes them enthusiastically.

"So what is all this stuff?" Terrus asks and they all bend down, trying to pick them up.

"I would not suggest doing that. Some of them have poison on them. If you cut yourself, you die," Sten said as he came up behind the curious children. Their eyes grew big and they jumped away.

"But… these swords are Dar Mithu… Mirsu… no… Dar Misu. They are from my clan, it must belong to someone. We don't just leave these about," Ra'ala screwed up her courage and spoke.

"I shall pick them up and pack them. It seems too much for you to carry," Sten finishes looking at all the backpacks also strewn out.

"Do you have a horse? Horses are very good at carrying loads," Alistair says proudly. He knows all about horses after so much time in the stables.

"No."

"Oh." At that, things get a little quiet and Sten walks away to converse with Morrigan about what needed to be done. Perhaps the witch knows what magic caused this and how to reverse it.

Lendon is keeping to himself, trying not to draw attention. The little red head girl won't stop staring at him. And she keeps picking flowers and smelling them. Finally, she comes over to him which makes him nervous.

"Do you know anything about Andraste's Grace?" she asks and he almost wants to scowl. Even at such a young age he hates the Chantry and their rules. Though he does like Andraste, so he'll help.

"What do you mean?" he asks hoping she isn't going to ask him to recite some chant or something. He never pays attention during services.

"It's a flower that grows in Fereldan. Mother used to say it grows like weeds. She always smelled of it and I…" the little girl seems to become really sad again so he sits up and scoots closer to her.

"My name is Lendon. What is yours?"

"Leliana."

"I'm sorry about your mom. Let's find that flower. You would remember when you smelled it right?"

"Oh yes! Thank you!" she says and they both set about picking flowers.

"There must be a way to change them back," Sten says to Morrigan as they start picking up all the items.

"Lendon looked quite interested in that book the man was using," Morrigan remembered the way he reacted to it.

"I would say horrified. Like he wanted to destroy it, not read it," Sten corrected her.

"Quite unlike himself if his thirst for knowledge is as Terrus said."

"The answers to this may be in that book," Sten.

"It is buried under rock and ruin. How do you suggest we get in there with all these children running around?"

"I will move the rock and you will watch the children."

"Is that so? No, I think it is better that I remove the stone with my magic while you watch the children."

The two glare at each other, neither wanting to back down on this and look after so many children.

"I want some cheese," Alistair said from below them. The two adults look down and see him staring up at Morrigan. It is incredibly strange to her after all their bickering and hatred.

"Round up the children and I will get a meal prepared. Sten, set up camp please," Morrigan says and turns around.

"Where are the rest of you?" she asks Alistair who looks suddenly scared and closes his mouth tight. "Alistair I don't have time for silly little games."

"Ra'ala had an idea. The rest followed."

"Why didn't you?"

"I want cheese. And they said that Zabam could find me with his nose again, so they could get back fine. Mabari are really smart you know."

"Zabam is with them. They will be safe," Sten says and starts getting out tents. Alistair giggles and then covers his mouth when Sten looks at him. "What do you find funny?"

"Zabam sounds funny when you say it," Alistair giggles again and Sten just sighs. Alistair sees Morrigan looking through packs and goes to be with her. Following her everywhere she goes, much to her annoyance, though he doesn't see that part.

Morrigan feels tugging on her skirts and she looks down to see Alistair not even looking at her and she is annoyed with him. "What is it Alistair?"

He whips his head back to look at her and lowers his head, looking back to where he was staring off at and points, "Are we going to be sleeping near those things?" Morrigan sees him pointing to the bodies and she fights off rolling her eyes. She finally finds some cheese and thrusts it into his hands.

"We will get rid of them before we sleep," she says and goes to survey the area that the spell hit. Alistair follows at her heels bouncing around happily, eating his cheese. She doesn't understand this sudden attachment but it is better than him dying somewhere because of his clumsiness.

She has just come to a conclusion when she hears a high pitched scream, followed by others. She and Sten run toward the woods while Alistair hides behind some rubble.

Two halla run through the brush with two elves and a small dwarf atop one, the other elf, little Orlesian, and mage boy on the other. Zabam is running beside it with Elissa and her puppy on his back. Two bears are roaring and chasing after them.

Sten unsheathes Asala and Morrigan shoots lightning at the other. Between the two of them the bears did not touch the children and only scratched Sten. Morrigan turns around to see many different reactions to her magic.

Elissa hides behind Zabam looking at her wearily, but not in fear. Alistair looks afraid, still hiding behind the rubble. Ra'ala is still holding Oghren and is looking at her in wonder while Oghren looks confused. Zevran hasn't yet dismounted either but looks afraid. Terrus is more interested in Sten's sword and Lendon looks so shocked she is surprised he still has eyes because of how much they are bugging out. Leliana looks aghast at the act.

"You are a mage!" Ra'ala shouts excited and dismounts, placing Oghren on the ground and running toward her. "My father was one too. So is our Keeper."

"Yes I have heard the Dalish are led by their mages," Morrigan answers.

Now is when all the questions started. Like, why wasn't she in the Circle or at least in Court. Alistair is the most afraid, not that she is surprised nor is she surprised when Elissa just doesn't stop asking questions and demanding answers.

She did not know children could be so troublesome. And she knew she was going to raise one… Morrigan sighs deeply.


End file.
